Lou had her final surgery by Dr. Hancock Monday when he removed the port that had been used for the chemo infusions. The port had been bothering Lou for some time and she was happy to have it removed. Dr. Hancock offered to clean it up so she could give it to a grandkid, but she turned down the offer. It was at the end of a busy day for the good Doctor, but he said he had two more meetings, one with the president of the hospital and the other to give a talk, so his day wasn't over. The surgery went well with little pain and we got to have dinner with Lou's sister, Sue, and her husband, Ike, our granddaughter, Ashley, and her boyfriend, Ross, along with Mark and Mary Kathryn. We ate at La Madelaine on Camp Bowie. Ike got a good report on his blood tests and they are trying to decide when to do his knee replacement. May wait until after Christmas.

Lou asked about her back pains and Hancock told her to check with her doctor and find out what is causing the pain. Today we called Dr. Estes, our family doctor, and he said the earliest he could see her is Wednesday week. Said their office is full of people this week. I am amazed at Lou's work ethic. She has all of these books to read, but she has addressed all her Christmas cards, and today I mailed the local cards plus one to Laurie's family in France. Tomorrow she will finish writing a note in each of the other cards. All this and she got her Monday laundry done on Tuesday. Truly one amazing person.

At lunch today at Kiwanis, the Baptist preacher, Ron White, told me he was pheasant hunting this last weekend with Dr. Guy Sheppard, our friend who is the current president of the Texas Veterinary Medical Society. His wife, Valerie, was our daughter's roommate at A&M.